The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-01
Complied for The ArkGnsaw Trdveier. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

been found in hail by Prof. l.. Maggi, an Italian physiologist. Such organ iSms are well-nigh universal.
 The transparency of molten iron, noticed during casting of several tons, has been recorded by MT. W. Ramsay. It had yellow tinge.
 The River Turia, at a point thirty five miles away, is to be utilized for running the factories of Valencia, Spain. Tine 3,000-h power avail able will be transmitted by electricity.
 A French experimenter, M. Cling mann, appears 10 have successfully sought for material superior to car bon for electric lightning. Pencils of zirconium will last, he affirms, for sev- eral months in an arc lamp.
 The idea of putting monkeys to work se' ms to have been accomplished ill Brazil, where, according to report from Rio Janeiro, twenty of these ami mals have been successfully trained to cut hemp on large hemp farm.
 A petroleum exhibition is soon to be held ill St. Petersburg, in connec- tion with which the Russian minister of war offers prize of 500 roubles for a compact and practical battery for electric lighting with incandescent lamps.
 Prof. Lodges discovery of the re- markable effect of static electricity in freeing the air from dust and vapor has been utilized by MT. J. G. Lor- rain in the construction of an appa- ratus for dissipating the smoke pro- duced by the discharge oi cannon.
 Disasters to eyesight are evidently more common than is generally sup posed, judging from the statement that more than 2,000,O00 glass eyes are made annually in Germany and Switzerland. An artificial eye seldom lasts more than five years, the secre- tion of the glands turning it cloudy.
 Dr. Murray, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, estimates the mean height of the land of the globe to be between 1900 and 2,1OO feet, the lat ter limit being probably the more nearly correct. Humboldt's estimate of the mean height of the continents was 1000 feet.
 A WASTE PRoDUGT UTILIZED.-A new British industry is the prepara- tion of basic slag for agricultural ma- nure. The material is pulveriZed by machinery to such an extent that the finished product will pass through sieve of 10000 holes to the square inch. The fertilizing properties of this slag arc due to the large propor- tion of iron and phosphoric acid which it contains.
 A SCIENTIFIC SECRET.-An effective method of petrifying animal bodies was claimed by Dr. G. B. Massedag- lia, distinguished Padua chemist who died more than forty years ago. The secret of the process was left for his legitimate heirs, who have only very recently been found. The discovery SO long locked up is now eagerly sought, and large sums have been offered for it-thus far unnecessarily.
 A FRENCH FuEL.-The plan of utilizing coke dust by making it into briquettes has been successfully adopted by gas company at Lyons, France. This is accomplished by mixing each ton of fine coke with about POO pounds of coal-tar pitch and then passing through a compress ing machine. The total cost is $4 per ton, and the product readily sells for $5.50 to $6 per ton. The expense for the plant, with a capacity of sixty five tons daily, was only $5,OOO.
 THE PLEIADEs.-Forty five years of observation have shown that the fifty three stars catalogued by Bessel in the Pleiades nearly all have drift in space opposite to our own. This drift is doubtless only apparent, being due to the motion of the solar system. Six of the stars do not partake of this backward movement on account of their extreme remoteness, while two appear to move more rapidly than the others on account of their nearness to us. The former are so distant that the path, moderately estimated at 21, 1000, 100000 miles in length, trav- ersed by the sun during the forty-five years since Bessel's measurement, be- comes too small to be detected from them.
 A MIGHTIER THAN NIAGARA.-As a possible theory of the origin of the Mississippi, Messrs. Robert Bates and John A. Reyes suggest that its ero- sion was accomplished by means of a mighty cataract which began far down the river near it's original mouth, and by gradual retrocession dug out the valley-like gorge which is so marked a feature in the upper part of its course, and left tine high bluff walls on either hand. This view makes St. Anthony's Falls the ever decreas- ing and receding remnants of the once most stupendous cataract the world